Tales From The To-Read Tower #2
So, like any good bookworm, I have a to-real pile. Although when I look at it properly – and especially if I were to add in the ebook library – it would be more like a tower. There are a lot of memes out there dedicated to showing off unread books, but if I were to give one book a week some focus it would take forever. And I suspect I am not the only one in this position.
So behold, five tales from my to-read tower: one adult, one YA, one non-fiction, one comic/manga, and one audiobook.
Adult – The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
A very young woman’s first job: governess for two weirdly beautiful, strangely distant, oddly silent children, Miles and Flora, at a forlorn estate…An estate haunted by a beckoning evil.
Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls…
But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil.
For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.
Isn’t that cover gorgeous? It’s from Rock Paper Books who do amazing illustrations for classic books and works of Shakespeare. I got the whole epub series of their classics for signing up to their email list; I hope that offer is still open because so good.
Young Adult – The Eternal City by Paula Morris
Laura Martin is visiting Rome on a class trip, and she’s entranced by the majestic Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon . . . Everything in this city seems magical.
That is, until the magic seems to turn very dark.
Suddenly, statues of Cupid and ancient works of art come to life before her eyes. Earthquakes rumble and a cloud of ash forms in the sky. A dark-eyed boy with wings on his heels appears and gives her a message. Laura soon realizes she is at the center of a brewing battle – a battle between the gods and goddesses, one that will shake modern-day Rome to its core.
Paula Morris is a Maori author from New Zealand. I really liked her YA book Ruined and look forward to reading its sequels and her two other YA novels. And also her adult stuff.
She says she hasn’t got any YA novels planned at the moment, but I hope a) she comes back to YA b) writes something with a Maori protagonist/set in NZ.
Non-Fiction – The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
The most current and authoritative look at Donald Trump’s background and rise to power.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who has covered Donald Trump’s rise to power for 30 years, mostly for the New York Times, investigates the mogul’s rise to power. Included is a thorough look at Trump’s numerous ties to organized crime, his history of litigation, his family background including his father’s involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, his philandering, a close look at his actual skill in running casinos , constructing buildings and managing real estate, his numerous bankruptcies, and the questionable nature of his actual wealth.
Honestly, I’m not looking forward to reading this one, but I feel it is important to know one’s enemy.
Comic – Shadoweyes by Sophie Campbell
Moody teenager Scout Montana is an aspiring vigilante, but her first attempt ends with her knocked unconscious. When she awakens, she discovers that she’s able to transform into a superhuman creature, and she becomes the superhero Shadoweyes. However, Scout soon finds she’s unable to return to her human form. Scout’s new life is just getting started, and it won’t be easy.
I love Sophie Campbell’s work on Jem and the Holograms so I’m always down to read more work by her. Plus as I’m always trying to read more works by diverse creators (Sophie Campbell is trans), it’s nice to have another excuse to read more of her stuff.
Seriously, if you haven’t read Jem and the Holograms, go do that. Right now.
Audiobook – Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
A former child actor best known for her starring roles in Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire, Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and out of place: as the only kid on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, a Valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and a grown-up the world still remembers as a little girl. Tackling everything from what she learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to discovering in adolescence that she was no longer “cute” enough for Hollywood, these essays chart her journey from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity. They also illuminate universal struggles, like navigating love and loss, and figuring out who you are and where you belong. Candid, insightful, moving, and hilarious, Where Am I Now? introduces Mara Wilson as a brilliant new chronicler of the experience that is growing up female.
I like Mara Wilson (who doesn’t?) and this will make a great companion for You Look Like That Girl… by Lisa Jakub, who played Mara’s older sister in Mrs Doubtfire. Which I also have yet to listen to.